Xubuntu 10.10: Becoming More Unique

The upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.10 promises a variety of new features for Ubuntu’s desktop and server editions. But it will also bring significant changes for Ubuntu’s lightweight cousin, Xubuntu. Here’s a look at some of the most important updates for the Xfce-based Ubuntu variant, including several that will increase its independence from standard Ubuntu.

Admittedly, until I downloaded the Xubuntu alpha 3 release, it had been a while since I tried the distribution. I used to run it on some lower-end machines, but I gave it up a couple years ago because the performance improvement over Gnome-based Ubuntu was not drastic enough to justify the features missing in Xfce, at least for me.

For a truly lightweight system, something like Lubuntu seemed more appropriate than Xubuntu. After all, at its core, Xubuntu has traditionally retained a high level of dependence on Gnome, making it hard to distinguish in many respects from standard Ubuntu.

Maverick Xubuntu

I might have to change my view of the distribution after testing the Xubuntu 10.10 release, however. While it’s still not the most resource-efficient system available, it has increased its independence not only from Gnome but also from the standard Ubuntu application stack, replacing many of Ubuntu’s stock programs with lightweight alternatives.

For starters, the Parole media player has replaced Totem, the standard music and video-playback application in most Gnome-based Linux distributions. Here’s a look:

For the most part, Parole looks and acts pretty similarly to Totem. But it’s designed for Xfce, and thus helps Xubuntu stand out as a distribution of its own.

Another signification departure from regular Ubuntu is the replacement of Gnome’s task manager with Xfce’s own alternative, xfce4-taskmanager:

A task manager is a task manager, and there’s only so much that can be done to make it unique. But as with Parole, the fact that this is an Xfce-specific application helps Xubuntu carve a niche for itself distinct from the one that Ubuntu already fills.

Of course, despite efforts to distinguish it from Ubuntu, Xubuntu still retains some Gnome dependencies. It ships with the Gnome games package and File Roller, for example, and uses Gnome VFS. Nonetheless, it’s encouraging to see more uniqueness in the distribution, especially given the uncertain future of the Gnome-Ubuntu relationship as the release of Gnome 3.0 approaches.

19 comments

I’m not sure whether I personally consider change for the sake of change a good thing, but the actual reasoning behind some of the application changes (which are only being tried out up till now) is a lot more solid, IMHO.

Grappa: I’m not sure what’s up with that. However, the screenshots were taken from a system that was originally Ubuntu and onto which I installed xubuntu-desktop…so this issue may not exist on a pure Xubuntu system.

I still think Xubuntu does rely on pulse audio. Perhaps, it could do without it (in the name of lightness). I think of Xfce as more mature DE over Lxde. (Using article language) Xubuntu reminds me of Ubuntu’s cousin that went on a diet to be light, but decided to quit halfway through the diet.

“Ubuntu’s cousin that went on a diet to be light, but decided to quit halfway through the diet.” Great metaphor–I’d have said the same thing if I could have articulated it as well.

Sometimes I think Xubuntu might be better presented not as a lightweight version of Ubuntu, but merely as one with an alternative desktop environment which happens to be a little lighter on resource usage than Gnome but whose chief value is an alternative desktop experience, not its resource consumption.

I’ve never thought Xubuntu was fast enough to satisfy people who want a truly lightweight system, but I do find certain aspects of Xfce’s interface and way of doing things preferable to Gnome’s. If I switched to Xubuntu, it would be for the interface, not because it uses a bit less memory than Ubuntu.

I use xubuntu because I prefer the interface over gnome. It feels like a more traditional desktop and behaves the way I like. I always replace most of the default applications with my own choices so that is a no brainer too. Sadly, 10.04 was poisoned with Pulse but I got rid of that crap easily enough.

@spc – I tried zenwalk twice and neither time would it even boot for me. Then it appeared that their live version doesn’t install so you end up downloading a desktop edition as well. Finally, a HUGE convenience of xubuntu is that the ubuntu repos. That alone makes the decision to stick with xubuntu worthwhile.

I prefer XFCE over GNOME as well. I wish they would not imitate gnome in having a panel at both the top and bottom of the screen. It is also possible to have classic dock apps with XFCE.

One of the reasons for sticking with Ubuntu is the size and depth of their repositories and ppa’s. Things that I like having around include finch, radiotray, minitube, recorditnow, wmbutton, wmmsg, wmauda, wmcalc, wmix, wmcube, gringotts, zim, exaile, and hnb. There are more, but that is what I can think of off the top of my head. Back when I was a slacker I would loose 2 or 3 days compiling software. To move to ZenWalk I will have stuff to custom compile PLUS the learning curve of doing things the ZenWalk way.

It is Xubuntu’s Ubuntu underpinnings that slow it down. For comparison, compare the current stable Debian release with XFCE against Xubuntu. The performance difference is noticeable. As much as I like Ubuntu, if my home workstation were not a dual-core monster (when I bought it) with 8GB of RAM, I would in all likelihood run straight Debian. I’m sorry to say this, but Ubuntu is clearly the Vista of the Linux world – pretty, convenient, smart about hardware but *bloated* and nowhere near the speed champion in responsiveness.

Ubuntu is the Vista of Linux? Not quite. I switched from Vista to Linus about 18 months ago, have used Ubuntu and Xubuntu and have toyed with Mint, Debian and Fedora. On its worst days, Ubuntu/Xubuntu don’t even come close to Vista. I have been able to run Xubuntu on a 512 machine without any sluggishness at all.

I choose Xubuntu for the desktop, speed, and apps, not necessarily for less RAM usage. My recommendations for Xubuntu Developers (feel free to pass this along): Make XFCE two-panel layout similar to the way Zenwalk does it with dock-like Zenpanel. Add Facebook plug-in to Pidgin like Mint. Replace slow Firefox with speedy Chromium-stable. Add lightweight Pino social client. It is more stable than Gwibber and not Gnome dependent. Replace Ristretto with lightweight Gpicview. Ristretto renders images too small. Gpicview works great in XFCE. Add a decent menu editor, as Gnome’s menu editor does not work in Xubuntu! Replace bloated Thunderbird with Sylpheed. Less of a priority, but could add Cheese webcam, firewall gui gufw, and OpenJDK. Exhaile, Xfburn, Xchat, GIMP (or mtpaint??), and Parole are all good choices that should still be included. I would replace Gnome office with OpenOffice like Mint XFCE does. OO seems to be running faster these days in XFCE. Abiword does not save ODT files that can be opened in OO correctly either. To save Xubuntu from slow death, some of these suggestions need to take place. I like that Xubuntu has access to the Software Store, but without all of the unnecessary stuff Ubuntu sometimes has. Lubuntu may be lighter, but it is less customizable and is still a buggy Beta.

Describing Xubuntu as a lightweight alternative to Ubuntu is being a bit generous. Also, as much as I think Parole is promising, it’s also painfully incomplete. And the new Xfce task manager is frustrating at a basic level, due to the fact that it’s got a completely inconsistent UI. The top pane is neither a menubar, nor a toolbar and it contains completely passive informational widgets (the graphs), which belong at the bottom of the window. Gnome-system-monitor may get a little laggy with it’s ciaro graphs but it’s a far easier and more useful application, which doesn’t eschew UI conventions for no discernible reason.

I use Xubuntu on my 8year old Gateway because the Ubuntu or Kubuntu since Lucid are completely unusable with my video chip. Xubuntu works marvelously on my computer and is fast. Thanks Xubuntu team and Mighty Mouse XFCE team!

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